Saturday, November 27, 2010

Cliff Whiting

'Diving for Scallops'
There are a series of eight images (110 mm x 280 mm on Incisioni 190 gsm paper) depicting the gathering of seafood. All taken from Cliff's own food gathering in Te Kaha in his teenage days. These signed and named prints have been printed at Homeprint and are available for
$160 unframed.

Huntley book artists.


Using the yellowXpress 5000, short strokes are used when the pressure comes on to create the most pressure (5000kg).

Huntley book artists.


A Huntley student admires the 2 colour print just pulled from the Imperial Press.

Huntley book artists.


Steve and Kelly help out in the printmaking class, keeping an eye on the ink and cleaning down the plates on change of colour. Barry taking lots of photos for the school web site.

Huntley book artists.

21 young artists from Barry Williams class at Huntley School, Marton, spend the day working at Homeprint producing 2 colour prints from MDF carvings and print the names of their stories with 100 year old wood type.

Steve and Kelly, American WWOOFers

Allison admires the special Thanksgiving food prepared by Steve and Kelly on Thanksgiving Day.
Vegetable tagine, quiche, and pumpkin pie in the oven. Delicious.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Bianca and her gecko print


Bianca has created a 3 colour print from her MDF carving of a gecko. This is called reductive relief printing.





Bianca and her gecko print


Bianca takes to carving and printing like a geck0 sleeps in the sun.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Bianca inks up plate.

Bianca, our latest WWOOFer from Germany, inks up her MDF carving of a gecko. I encourage my students to print many copies of their first carving (try sets of 4 lighter colours first).
Waterbased ink, small soft rubber rollers, inked out on glass using the Imperial Press. Hung to dry on the drying rack in the hallway.

yellowXpress 5000

yellowXpress 5000 hog-tied ready for freight to Christchurch.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Nicola Baker commissions gold on leather cover.

The type (Latin Bold 24 point) has been locked into the pallet chase.
I have used steel and brass furniture near the type to help with the heat transfer.

Nicola Baker commissions gold on leather cover.

The pallet is about to be keyed into the platen of the McKay (circa 1890) goldblocking press.
I waited about 15 minutes for the type to heat up evenly before I started my test prints.

Nicola Baker commissions gold on leather cover.

Sample prints testing the pressure and the heat needed for the gold foil to melt onto the leather.

Nicola Baker commissions gold on leather cover.

Nicola made a great job of making a card template then cutting out the leather to fit the journal.
The next stage for this project is the cobbler to sew the flaps and edges and for Nicola to plait and tie the closure.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Ricarda and Merla, woofers from Germany.


A plate of tempting 'Americans', with lemon icing, baked by Ricarda and Merla (on the left) . The tajine that John cooked was a chicken treat with kumera, pineapple, parsnip, carrot and mashed potato.

Poppies - Iconic Feilding bookshop

Margaret is in the old safe with the new xmas card collection, standing in front of a handprinted poem that she handset at Homeprint.

Poppies - Iconic Feilding bookshop

Raewyn searching for a letterpress title.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Ricarda and Merla WWOOFers from Germany

Ricarda's sketches and carvings are at the proof stage, ready to be inked up and printed. We realised the lovely little image of the outline of New Zealand was carved as you would see it in a map, BUT, it needs to be in reverse for the relief print to have the correct orientation.
I told Ricarda to keep the little carving and make a new one for the printing plate.
The results of the printings were great. Mementos to share with many other friends and family.

Ricarda and Merla, woofers from Germany.

Merla has sketched ideas on paper, drawn onto MDF, then carved with the Japanese carving tools using a bench hook for safety.

Ricarda and Merla, woofers from Germany.

Ricarda and Merla with the 'Bee Sting Cake', just out of the oven.

Ricarda and Merla, woofers from Germany.

Allison, Merla,and Ricarda enjoy the 'Bee Sting Cake'. Of course I enjoyed it too!

Michael Smither - Relief prints

'Ready.'

Michael Smither - Relief prints

'OOPS'

Michael Smither - Relief prints

'Curiosity'

Michael Smither - Relief prints

'Otama beach with sun.'

Michael Smither - Relief prints

'Otama.'

Michael Smither - Relief prints

'A fisherman'
This set of 6 felt tip drawings by Michael Smither have been relief printed by John Brebner using negative transparencies and creating a relief solarplate. The oil based 'green' ink has been rolled onto the plate then the images printed by hand onto Incisioni paper using the Hunters (circa 1905).
I visited Michael in his studio with the images and he signed and numbered them for me.
All 6 prints are available individually from the Homeprint Gallery for $160 each unframed.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Ricarda and Merla WWOOFers from Germany

The gallies hold the type as a flat surface, the furniture and small magnets hold the type in lines for clear printing.

Ricarda and Merla WWOOFers from Germany

Merla pulls on the power lever to lower the platen onto the galley with the inked up type. This operation is very simple and requires very little energy in the printing action, much more energy is required to move the bed in and out under the platen.

Ricarda and Merla WWOOFers from Germany

Merla holds up her latest print ready to hang it on the line to dry.

Ricarda and Merla WWOOFers from Germany

The inking up of printers type set in a galley is done, inking up on the diagonal, both ways. In this learners studio I use waterbased ink. Ricara is being very careful!

Ricarda and Merla WWOOFers from Germany

Ricarda shows the print she has just peeled off the Imperial Press (1828).
The Imperial Bookbinding blocking press is on the left of the studio.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Allison's ducklings

Allison walks down to the ducklings and mother duck in the park beside Te Papa.
The 9 duckings were very young, probably just hatched today. Mother duck wasn't too worried but just kept her distance while John was up on the bridge taking photographs for Leo's book.

Ruby and John Clark's cat.

Poppies - Iconic Feilding bookshop

Piikea Clark buys a beautiful book on printmaking and a history of music recording in New Zealand from Tania. Poppies Bookshop has just won the 'North Island Bookseller of the year' prize through the efforts of Tania Gunn and mastermind Margaret Kouvelis.
Homeprint (John) has just handprinted letterpress onto 500 small and 500 large brown paperbags with the added line 'N.I. Bookseller of the Year 2010'.